In 2017, it seems as if many in the ad industry did a find-and-replace to swap out “big data” with “artificial intelligence.” The dream of 25-year-old media buyers being replaced by robots that aren’t hung over or on the hunt for jeans parties will be a dream deferred, at least in 2018.

This is because most digital advertising problems don’t require algorithms as complicated as winning a chess game as solutions. Media planning and buying will remain a mostly human endeavor, as brands come to terms with the reality that implementing has high upfront costs for the promise of uncertain future savings — and comes with a loss of control.